Aug.,"! Kelly, Plant Distribution in the Healesville District. 6i 



1914 J 



Watts and the Yarra, has taken the place of Melaleuca erici- 

 folia, a species that does not come within the area. Dwarf 

 forms of L. lanigerum are also found on the Chum road in dry 

 ground, not far, however, from the luxuriant front of the creek. 

 In this place, and in company with these, are L. myrsinoides 

 and a few stray bushes of L. attenuatum. L. scoparium usually 

 keeps away from the main streams and favours rising ground. 

 The piebald paper-bark, Melaleuca, is represented just outside 

 the area by M. ericifolia, where its distribution ends on the 

 Yarra and its flats near Tarrawarra. Inside the area the only 

 species is M. sqiiarrosa, in patches, of which the principal is 

 at the back of Gracedale House, in the gully through which 

 the Badger aqueduct pipe is laid to syphon under the Fern- 

 shaw road, and by this pipe-track it may be easily reached. 

 In close association with it is Acacia oxycedrus, and, less thickly. 

 Acacia verticillata, Baiieri rubioides, and occasional clumps of 

 the tall Coral Fern, Gleichenia circinata. 



It is interesting to review and follow the association and 

 diversions of the various tea-trees (including paper-barks). 

 Following that somewhat artificial course, the railway line, 

 the Woolly Tea-tree, L. lanigerum, persists, sometimes as a 

 dominant and at others as a subordinate, all the way. 

 Allowing for clearing, it is now patchy up to Mooroolbark, 

 where M. ericifolia predominates. This relationship continues 

 across the Yarra flats right to the junction of the Yarra with 

 the Watts, and there, on the course of the former, Kunzea 

 'peduncularis takes the place of the Melaleuca, which drops 

 out. Kunzea does not, however, go up the Watts at all, and 

 L. lanigerum has no tea-tree associate, except in occasional 

 patches of marsh, where M. squarrosa is met with. Along the 

 flank of this line of march on the higher ground, and descending 

 to the banks of streams at intervals, L. scoparium is constant. 

 These plants, and those midway between the second story and 

 the ground floor, lead us to consider plants more or less isolated. 



ISOLATED PLANTS. 



Although Prostanthera melissifolia is found in abundance at 

 the head of Myers Creek and on the slopes of Mount St. Leonard, 

 only one solitary specimen grows on quite low-lying ground 

 a short distance from the junction of the Chum and Yarra Glen 

 roads. Near this spot, too, is one plant of Viminaria denudata, 

 which otherwise approaches no nearer than Coldstream. 

 Casuarina suberosa, Sheoke, grows close to the tunnel, mostly 

 on the Melbourne side, and there in open association with 

 Banksia marginata. It is only found within the Healesville 

 area on a small clay hill near the foot of Mount Riddell, where 

 there is no Banksia. The principal habitat of Hibbertia 



